Best Made
by xbloodlustangelx
Summary: Entry to Harry Potter Fanfic Challenges, Biggest Challenge Ever by wujy. Years after the war, with the news of Harry's failing marriage will Ron finally have the guts to tell his best friend how he really feels about him? SLASH


**A/N: My Entry to Harry Potter Fanfic Challenges, Biggest Challenge Ever by wujy.**

**Pairing: Harry/Ron**

**My Prompts: Words: Firewhiskey, Dream, Rose Quotes: "You make me understand how wonderful it is for little lizards when they find that one special rock that's perfect for sunning themselves on. You make me lizard-happy." - "We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by."**

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The fire crackled loudly as Ron's eyes stared intently at the flames while it danced about the fire place and consumed the log. His hand was idly holding the glass of firewhiskey on the arm of his chair. The condensation of the glass pooling around his fingers, the ice giving small tinkling noises as the melting caused them to shift around against each other and the glass that contained them.

"Uh oh, Ron's deep in thought." He heard a masculine voice say and the forcing down of his shiver had become so routine, he didn't need to think anymore for it to happen. Hiding his true feelings had become second nature now, but one would gather that after fourteen years he'd have mastered such things. His eyes shifted away from the orange flames into the verdant orbs of his best friends. Funny thing was his friend was far from the truth, he was staring into the flames to clear his head, zone out so his mind was empty, because sitting next to the source of all these emotions would eventually drive him insane if he didn't find away to escape it, just for a few seconds at least.

"Sorry Mate." He said trying not to notice the shift of Harry's body as he lifted his own glass of firewhiskey to his lips. As that cool glass made contact with the soft flesh of his mouth Ron had to look away, not wanting to torture himself by watching the action. Plus the flare of jealousy at such a harmless thing as a glass really was too pathetic even for him, so if he didn't see it he wouldn't feel it, or so he tried to convince himself.

He heard the rustling of clothes from behind him, and knew it instinctively to be Hermione. She leaned on the back of his chair, with one arm, the other cradling their eight month old daughter Rose on her hip. He craned his neck back to look at his wife of six years. She was as beautiful as ever, and just as smart. "I'm going to bring Rose over to visit with Molly. I think you two have a lot to talk about." She said giving Ron a knowing look. What a loaded statement that was.

Thank Merlin for Hermione, the woman was sharp as a tack and knew of his longing and seriously forbidden love of his best friend, and she never judged or hated him for it. On the contrary she was constantly trying to get him to open up to Harry about it. He was one of the luckiest bastards in the world. He had a beautiful wife that understood his secret love of his best friend as well and could comprehend the fact that it was possible for him to both love her and Harry at the same time with out diminishing his feelings for either. What she didn't seem to understand was his inability after all these years to admit his feelings to his friend.

Lucky for him his admitting his long standing secret love for his friend was not the actual topic they were here to discuss. They were here, to discuss the obvious dissolution of Harry and Ginny's marriage. Ron figured Harry wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to hate him for leaving his sister, if only he knew that deep down, the idea of Harry being single once again, made him rather glad.

The silence following the sound of Hermione flooing over to his mother's was thick enough to walk on, both of them unable to start off their conversation, after what seemed like forever he heard Harry clear his throat.

"Ginny and I are getting a divorce." Harry finally blurted out. "I know you already knew that but now I'm telling you officially." He said before lifting the glass to his lips again. Ron simply nodded his head and followed Harry's lead and took another sip of his firewhisky. "I'm sorry Mate." Harry said and Ron's eyes shifted back to his face, eyebrow arching.

"Bloody hell Harry, she cheats on you and you're saying you're sorry to me?" He said with a shake of his head. "I should be the one apologizing to you on behalf of my daft sister."

"She's not daft." Harry said rather dejectedly.

"Why are you defending her? She had a great guy, a bloody hero for crying out loud and she still goes off and sleeps with some random bloke… how is that not daft?"

"There's more to it than you know… and I'm not a hero." Harry interjected.

"Yeah you are." Ron said with a grin and as soon as Harry lifted his eyes he saw his friends same old grin and couldn't help but smile himself, and that smile always seemed to take Ron's breath away.

"If I'm a hero so are you." Harry replied.

"No I'm not." Ron said with a shrug.

"Yeah you are." Harry argued back jokingly.

"Nope, but it's cool. We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by." Ron said playfully leaning back in his arm chair once more.

"Tosser." Harry said with a narrowing of his eyes.

"Git." Ron replied in kind, a playful smile curling his lips which was soon matched by his best friend before they both chuckled.

"Well if you're not a hero I really need to reexamine your motivation for helping my ass out for … ooooh all seven years of our school lives." Harry said while leaning back in his seat and sipping his glass once more. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you saved it just so you can ogle it later you poof." Harry tacked on and Ron had to take a rather large gulp of his own glass to hide the shock of how close that statement was to the actual truth. Ron stood up and walked to the small table along the wall holding his few decanters of liquor. He poured himself another glass before brining the bottle over to Harry and refreshing his drink as well. Only when he sat down again did he finally have a different topic to talk about to steer them away from the dangerous path they were on now.

"So what is this more to it part?" Ron said.

"Excuse me?" Harry replied obviously confused as to what he was talking about.

"You said there's more to your and Ginny's split than her cheating on you, so what is the more part?" He clarified before taking a sip of his new firewhisky. He watched as realization dawned on his friends perfect features before he turned his face to stare in the fire, and Ron could see that a blush had begun to crawl up his neck, which definitely piqued his curiosity. His mother had confided in him of Ginny's extramarital affair, he'd been the one to clue Harry into the whole situation, but he'd never dreamed that maybe his best friend had been doing some extracurricular activities himself. He wanted to push but knew that it was best for his old Gryffindor friend to bolster up his own courage and come out with it himself. After what seemed like forever Harry gave a knowing sigh that meant he'd resolved to spill the beans.

"I didn't want to tell you this, well I wanted to tell you, but not yet." He started and gave an assessing glance to Ron who felt like he was sitting on the edge of his seat, leaning comically towards Harry on pins and needles with all the tension running through him.

"Come on, we've been best mates for fourteen years now. What ever it is you can tell me I won't think any less of you." He said as calm as possible, and he must have appeared calmer than he felt because Harry's assessment moved away. He figured that out about his friend a long time ago, something about having tons of uniformed, misrepresented, and flat out false articles written about him, when ever anyone showed far to much interest in his personal life, he clamed right up.

"Well… as I said we weren't happy for a long time, and that was mostly to do with the fact that we just aren't a right fit, and partly because… I've…. Well I've come to the conclusion that I'm… well … gay." Harry said softly and Ron watched him peer at him from the corner of his eye. Ron worked to school his features into a mask of calm, but inside his heart was racing and he was pretty sure all the oxygen in London had simply disappeared.

"So you have some bloke on the side?" Ron asked. It wasn't the first question he wanted to ask but he did have to at least appear like he was a concerned brother.

"No!" Harry exclaimed. "I've never stepped out on Ginny. She's great and yes I know she cheated on me, but if I was stuck in a marriage to someone who doesn't love me, I'd cheat on me too. So I don't blame her for that. But I've tried to love her. I mean I do love her but not the way a husband should love his wife, and if I can't love someone as great as her, well then I must be gay." Harry said and Ron had to pinch himself. He'd never dared to dream that Harry was gay or at least bi like himself.

It was too painful to imagine, that he could ever be achievable. His ability to be friends with Harry, while still being so desperately in love with him, relied heavily on the fact that Harry would never be attainable. He was always the impossible dream. A straight man. To find out now that the only think keeping them apart was not due to his orientation, but because Harry just plain didn't want him… Ron didn't know if he could survive that kind of a let down. Well, he would because he had Hermione and Rose, but his and Harry's friendship… that was another question.

"Well you could still like women Harry, maybe it's just Gin is not the right one for you?" He offered up.

"Are you trying to convince me that I'm not gay?"

"No, Just saying not being able to love Gin shouldn't be the end all be all of your sexuality."

"It's not." Harry said staring into his drink.

"Oh." He said there was a stretch of silence and they both took a very large gulp from their glasses.

"I've wondered about it for a while… seven years actually."

"Blimey Harry, that's longer than your marriage to Gin."

"Yeah, I started wondering about it before seventh year. There was more than our hunt for horocruxes on my mind when I first broke up with Ginny."

"They why'd you get back with her?"

"Well everyone kind of expected me to. Plus I thought I should give heterosexuality a try, and I desperately wanted a normal life."

"Being gay doesn't make you abnormal Harry."

"I know the wizarding world is far more accepting of being gay but it's not like I'm not going to end up in the papers if I came out of the closet." He sighed. "So where does that put us?" He tacked on

"What do you mean?"

"Well are still friends?" Harry asked tentatively.

"Merlin Harry, of course we're still friends, I can't believe you had to ask."

"I didn't think you'd stop being my friend but I still just needed to hear it. And I'll be really discrete, no talking about who I'm seeing if you feel awkward being around me at first, I'll totally understand." He started rambling off.

"Blimey Harry, shut up." He said before standing once more to refill their glasses.

"You don't have to act any differently around me, there will be no awkwardness."

"You won't feel at least a little weird around me?"

"There'll be zero weirdness."

"Really?"

"Yeah really?"

"Mind me asking how you're so sure cause not that I don't believe you, but it's a lot to take in and you seem to be taking ridiculously well."

"Harry I'm your best friend, if something as trivial as your sexuality could change any bit of the way I feel about you, well that makes me a really crap friend doesn't it, but since it seems to be a night of revelations… I have one." He said and saw Harry arch a brow. That subtle movement caused a flutter of Ron's stomach and all the oxygen and heat now seemed to be non-existent. The words 'because I love you, a lot more than a friend.' wanted so desperately to fall from his lips. His hand started to shake and he had to set his hands, still gripping the glass, in his lap to keep them from giving away his inner turmoil. He looked into his friends expectant green eyes, willing those words to come out but in the end he… choked. "Because I'm bisexual." Came out instead.

"What?" Harry asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah."

"For how long?"

"Merlin I can't remember, I was maybe 14-15 I think."

"You've been with blokes?"

"I didn't say that."

"But you just said you were bi."

"Yeah and you said you were gay but have never cheated on my sister, so that means you haven't been with a man either, unless you tucked one away in Hermione's bag while we were searching for horocruxes, and somehow kept me and Hermione out of the loop."

"Does Hermione know?"

"Harry, Hermione is a bloody genius, of course she knows. Hell she figured it out before I did."

"And?"

"And what, we're married with a baby Harry; she's obviously fine with it."

"Why did you never tell me?"

"Well I've only ever been into one bloke, and I've got Hermione, so it's not like some huge revelation. I'm still me, so I didn't feel the need to tell anyone really. You're the first to know. Besides Hermione of course, I really only told you to ease your mind."

"Yeah now you just completely blew it up though haven't you."

"Seems so." He said finishing his firewhisky.

"Ok so what happens if you met a bloke you like, and you wanted to try something… you just going to ignore that desire?"

"Why would I ignore it?"

"Cause of Hermione. You can't tell me you'd cheat on her."

"Oh please, it wouldn't be cheating, I have Hermione's express permission to do whatever I fancy with any bloke I choose. She's been pushing me to meet a man for years."

"What?" Again Harry exclaimed his eyebrows disappearing behind his unruly black hair.

"Yeah, she's always going on about how I shouldn't deny something that's so strongly a part of me, how it's not healthy, and she loves me, and understands that what I'd feel for a man would never change what I feel for her."

"But how could it not?"

"Look you loved Gin right? Not romantic love but a kind of love right?"

"Yeah."

"But it's different when you think about men right? You could love a man differently."

"Yeah."

"It's the same thing; the heart can love in different ways. But since I have an equal attraction to men and women I can love each as intensely as I do differently. My love for one won't diminish my love for the other, but they'll never be the same kind of love."

"Blimey when did you get so profound?"

"Those aren't my words Mate, they're Hermione's… It took me a long time to really believe them though. I loved her a long time, long before we got together, but I also had a thing for a bloke, and not understanding that I could love both equally. I felt guilty because you're only supposed to love one person, and how could I love her completely when I had a thing for someone else. She made me see reason and I've never been happier."

"Who's the bloke?" Harry asked and Ron wanted to smack himself for letting his tongue get so loose as to let that slip. The damn firewhisky always had that affect on him.

"Pardon?" Ron questioned, attempting to play dumb.

"This bloke you had a thing for." No use Harry was either not as drunk as he was or, was just quicker even with the affects of the alcohol in his system.

"That… is going with me to the grave." He finally resorted to simply refusing to tell.

"Oi, come on." Harry exclaimed.

"No, it's far too embarrassing." Ron said with a shake of his head.

"It can't be that bad." Harry tried to reason, it would be so easy to just out and say… it was you, but again his mouth dried up and his hands began to shake. Twice tonight he choked.

"It's bad."

"Jeez it's not Malfoy is it?" Harry said with wide eyes and had Ron had anything left in his glass he surely would have spit the contents of it out across the room.

"No! Merlin Harry what would make you think it was ferret?"

"I dunno, you always hated him so much… there's a fine line between love and hate." Harry said with a shrug.

"Well it's not Malfoy."

"Then who?"

"As I said before, to the grave, new topic." Ron said as forcibly as he could and watched as Harry gave him a narrowed glare before huffing out a breath and turning his head away. He'd won for now.

"Fine… but I'm going to get it out of you sooner or later."

"You can try." He said with a snort, and tried to ignore all the ways Harry could do it, that made sitting a little uncomfortable. He did his best but some thoughts sneaked through, maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was knowing that if he got his friend truly smashed something could happen, either way he shifted slightly to relive the pressure.

"Oi, let's play a game of wizards chess." Harry exclaimed suddenly and Ron inwardly blanched and thanked the lord he wore loose fitting slacks as Harry stood and moved to the chess board set up near the fire place. Ron soon followed, glad Harry's attention was on setting up the board he grabbed the bottle of firewhiskey which was now only a third of the way full, and brought the bottle and their glasses over to the small table.

They sat in silence sipping their whiskey and playing the game for a bit, and around the time Ron had destroyed half of Harry's pieces, did Ron realize his friend's mind might be on something other than the game. Especially since all the alcohol he'd consumed had made him make three times more mistakes than usual.

"Oi, Harry, I know your rubbish at wizards chess but I know I taught you to be better than this." Ron finally stated, and watched as Harry blushed slightly, god that blush, for once in his life he wanted to be the cause of that blush, to know that it was getting caught thinking about him that made that delicious scarlet scrawl across Harry's cheeks.

"Sorry mate, I just had a thought in my head that doesn't seem to want to go away." Harry said with sigh.

"Well then out with it?" He said taking another pawn.

"I don't feel like it." Harry said polishing off his glass and pouring himself another and refreshing Ron's as well.

"Come on now, we're never going to play a decent game till you get it off your chest." Ron said.

"I dunno, maybe I want to take it to my grave." Harry said with a slight smirk.

"Oh you're not on about that again." Ron said taking another large gulp of his glass, wondering idly how many more he'd had since he sat down.

"No, not really, just don't want to tell you." Harry said with a shrug.

"Well fine then, let's play and keep your mind on the game." Ron said as Harry moved his knight to take one of his rooks, but that pattern didn't continue because after four more move's Ron had checkmate.

"Want to play another?" Harry asked while putting the reserve pieces on the board.

"Not if you're going to continue to play like that, I'd be better playing by myself wouldn't I." Ron joked. "Seriously Harry, what's on your mind?" Ron said starting to get concerned.

"I don't want to share, it really is nothing."

"Blimey Harry, whatever it is, it's enough to distract you into playing the worst game of wizard's chess you've ever played in your life, it must be something."

"Tell you what I'll share if you do?" Harry said his eyes piercing Ron with a steady glare. Ron hated that look; it was the look that meant Harry wasn't going to stop till he won. The only time Ron had been able to defeat that look was when it came after Harry stated he was going to win at wizard's chess, but he'd lost every other time. Luckily the loss hadn't been about revealing his long standing secret love of his friend… until now that was..

"That's not fair." Ron said picking up his glass and downing the rest. He looked at the empty glass and wondered if that was a smart idea. Less alcohol in his system would have given him a better resistance.

"Well neither is keeping a huge secret like who the bloke is that made you realize you were bi almost a decade ago from your best friend, who might I add had just realized he's gay and previously stated information could have helped him through a very tough time in his life had he known this before hand."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Ron did it ever occur to you that maybe knowing my friend was bi, would have made my inner turmoil over my sexuality back when I was seventeen a little easier. Maybe I would have been able to make this decision six years ago and not put myself and Ginny through all this pain." Harry said and even though Ron had thought he was simply trying to guilt him into revealing his secret he could see the pain in Harry's eyes, as well as the slightly glassy reflection of tears beginning to collect, and that look… was his downfall.

"Merlin Harry, I had no idea… I'm sorry." Ron said softly.

"No I'm the one who should be sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I don't know where all that came from… it must be the alcohol." He said with a shake of his head, and Ron was almost fooled until Harry lifted a hand and wiped at the tears that had collected.

"All right I'll tell you, but only if you tell me yours first." Ron said softly, the words leaving his mouth before his brain could register that that's what he wanted to say. He was on autopilot now, no way to stop it.

"No Ron, it's really not necessary. I don't want to blackmail you into telling me, it's not right."

"Neither is keeping a secret of my sexuality from you for so long either, so we're even." Ron said. "So what has you so distracted?" He poured himself another drink, unable to feel anything now that he'd set his mind to tell Harry. It was like he wasn't in his body at all, it was more like he was watching it all from across the room, in a sort of out of body experience. As Harry bit his bottom lip and blushed once more Ron felt an all too familiar feeling tremble through him, inspiring the same condition he'd been flirting with before, well apparently he wasn't having a complete out of body experience, maybe just an out of head experience if such a thing was possible.

"Is… Well Charlie's gay right?" Harry asked innocently and Ron felt the question like a blow to the chest, the pressure was excruciating he couldn't breathe and any previous thoughts were gone, he was back in his head now and hating it. God he knew he was going to have to start preparing himself to see Harry with other men, but not so soon and sure as hell not with his brother. Who was he fooling, he'd totally assumed that when he finally told Harry that he loved him, had loved him for a long time, Harry would confess the same thing to him and they'd hug and kiss, and whatever else they wanted, and be happy, together.

"Yes, he is." He said finally, his throat so dry his voice rasped slightly but luckily Harry didn't notice, or just chalked it up to the alcohol.

"Do…do you think if I asked him out he'd say yes?" Harry asked and Ron had to force himself not to breakdown and cry.

"I… I dunno, I think he would but, I think he's seeing someone right now, and he's all the way in Romania." Which was sort of true, Charlie was seeing someone. Problem was he was seeing a lot of someone's and that could easily be added by one.

"Oh." Harry replied and Ron hated the disappointment in his voice, but then Harry did the oddest thing and shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well." Harry said in such a light and nonchalant tone that it eased the pressure in Ron's chest. No one that had been harboring feelings for someone for a long time or even a decent amount of time could be that nonchalant. If the situation had been reversed, and the object of affection had not been his brother, he would have been crushed by the news. Unless of course there were no hidden feelings, just a mild curiosity. Merlin could he dare and hope that Harry didn't really have a thing for his brother?

"So my brother?" Ron forced out softly, trying to match Harry's nonchalant tone.

"Well, I figure my first date with a man might not be so awkward if it's with someone I already sort of knew, and know I can trust. If it's just some bloke that wants to get in my pants it could be bad." He said moving a chess pieces and starting the game off again.

"Right." Ron said inwardly elated at the news, Harry didn't have a thing for his brother… the gods were on his side.

"So, who's the bloke?" Harry asked and Ron felt the breath catch in his throat.

"I well…" He paused and looked at his friend's expectant face. "I can't." He finally said pushing off from the table and moving the couch, he flopped down, hands lifting to cover his eyes, but the darkness did nothing to slow his racing mind.

"Oi… that's not fair." Harry exclaimed. He could hear his voice start at the corner of the room where the chess table was and grow louder as he walked closer.

"I know it's not Harry, I just… I just can't tell you." He said, hands still covering his eyes, not so much to plunge himself in darkness and slow his mind, but more to cover the tears collecting in his eyes. If he told Harry… and Harry didn't feel the same… that was it, their friendship was over, Harry would go away, and Ron couldn't take it if he did. He needed to be able to see him, love him even if it was from a far. His life looked very bleak if he friend wasn't there. He felt hands grip his and pull them from his face, and he looked into the very concerned verdant eyes of his best friend, where he now kneeled in front of him.

"Ron… it can't be that bad, who ever it is, it's not like I'm going to hate you for it, I may poke some fun about it, but if that's too much I'll promise not to. It can't be that bad." Harry tried to reason with him.

"But that's just it, you can't make that promise to me, because you don't know, if you found out and you didn't like who it was… trust me our friendship would be over." He said letting his head fall back so that he got a glimpse of the ceiling before he closed his eyes tightly. He felt a reassuring squeeze on his hands and only then realized his friend was still holding them.

"Yes I can, I can too make that promise, cause even if it was Dean, or Seamus, or Neville, or Zabini, even Malfoy…." Harry started to ramble off.

"Even if it was you." Ron finally stated, yelling it a little bit and he watched as his friend literally froze, eyes wide, grip on his hands loosening. Ron pulled his hands away, but couldn't move from his seat like he wanted to, not with Harry kneeling in front of him and blocking his path. "Even if it is you." He said softly, putting emphasis on the word is, tears welling in his eyes but there was still nothing on Harry's face, no emotion to work off of, and that didn't bode well for him. "Yeah so now you know, I'm in love with you, have been for a very long time. I used to think about being with you, had dreams about you. Just the idea of being with you made me understand how wonderful it was for little lizards when they find that one special rock that's perfect for sunning themselves on. Just the idea of us being together made me lizard-happy. But I could never have you, can never have you and I was fine with that. Cause at least you were still my friend, but now… now I've lost that haven't I?" He said wiping furiously at the tears that spilled, eyes still looking at his motionless friend before he closed them with a sigh and leaned his head back against the chair.

The room had started to spin as he waited to hear the sound of his friend scuttling backwards as fast as he could before flooing home, but nothing came for a while. Finally the soft sound of Harry's clothing shifting came to his ears and he knew his friend was standing. The fact that it wasn't fast was a good sign but he wasn't going to fool himself now, everything was over, his dreams, their friendship.

The soft press of flesh to his lips had his eyes snapping open to gaze into the worried eyes of his friend, that were only a few inches away.

"I would have liked to have done that with your eyes open, but I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter." Harry said softly.

"What…" Ron began but the soft press of Harry's finger to his lips halted all words in his throat.

"No… it's my time to talk now." Harry said in a commanding yet gentle tone. "There was another reason why I wanted to ask Charlie out." He started and Ron felt his heart hammering against his ribcage. "Because he was as close as I would ever get to something I wanted but never dared think was even an option of attaining." Harry paused, a blush crawling up his neck and traipsing along his cheeks. "He was as close as I would ever get to having you." Ron sucked in a breath around his friend's finger where it was still pressed against his lips. His eyes felt as wide as saucers and he could feel his lip trembling as he stared transfixed on Harry's emerald orbs. He felt his head shake slightly from side to side, silently asking if his friend had been joking, as if to say 'You can't be serious' without uttering a word. Harry seemed to get his non-verbal message and started to just as slightly nod his head up and down, answering him with a soundless 'Yes I'm serious'. They stared at each other in shock for a moment, unable to move, unable to look away from each others wide and emotion filled eyes.

Two things then happened consecutively. Harry's slightly callused hand slipped from Ron's lips to cradle his cheek, then they both leaned forward and crushed their lips together for a fierce kiss. Both wanted their first real kiss to be sweet and tender, but with years of pent-up and unrequited desire and love fueling them, passionate and desperate was the only thing they could achieve, but neither would have changed it for the world.

Hands gripped clothing roughly, forcing hard chests to press closer together, fusing soft lips, before they parted and tongues joined into the frenzied encounter. Hands soon journeyed up muscled planes to delve and fist in soft tresses, soft whimpers and gasps filling the air. The world faded away and all that mattered was the locks between their fingers, the flesh under their palms, the hard body pressed against them, and the soft lips caressing theirs. That was until the sound of a throat clearing had them nearly jumping apart, breathing heavy and flushed from head to toe. Ron looked up at his wife with a trepid glance; Harry looked at Hermione in utter horror as she stood there with a sleeping Rose in her arms.

"It's about bloody time the two of you finally fessed up to each other." Was all she said with a jovial smirk.

"You knew?" They both exclaimed at the exact same time only to get shushed at by Hermione who checked on her sleeping daughter to make sure she remained so. Both Ron and Harry exchanged a glace. "You told her?" They asked the other at the exact same time once more, this time in a hushed whisper. They looked back to Hermione once more. "Why didn't you tell me?" They both asked her their voices both raising once more now that the realized his beloved wife had been clued in to their now equally reciprocated feelings. She only hushed them again.

"It wasn't exactly my place to tell was it? Why do you think I arranged for you two to be here tonight? I figured once Harry admitted he was single and gay, things would progress from there, and I see they have." She said softly.

"About that Hermione, I know what it looks like and I'm…" Harry started.

"Please Harry, I'm not mad, I take it Ron already explained my view on the whole thing. So please no apologizing, it's not needed. I'm just happy you both are happy, and so bloody glad I won't have to hear anymore about your feelings." She said with a chuckle. "Now I'm going to go put Rose down and head to bed myself. I dare say there's a lot more the two of you need to discuss." She said with a mischievous smile that had them both blushing. Hermione came forward and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek and Ron a kiss on the lips before bidding them both good night and giving her husband an 'I love you' which he happily returned, and then heading off up the stairs.

"She really is something." Harry said with a slight smirk.

"Yeah, it's why I married her." Ron said proudly, while Harry stood and moved to sit next to him on the couch.

"So I guess the next question is… what do we do now?" Harry asked and Ron gave him a wary glare.

"That really is up to you mate, we know where Hermione stands on the whole thing. She's fine with whatever we decide. It's really up to what you want."

"I want to date… eventually have a boyfriend… life partner… kids." Harry said and Ron felt his heart give a stutter as he swallowed a slight lump. Harry looked to him. "Can I have that with you, if you're with Hermione? If you even want all that?" He asked softly and Ron felt his stuttering heart soar.

"Harry of course I want all that with you. I've wanted that since I was 14 and realized that my feelings for you were more than just the kind of feelings a friend would have for another, and Hermione is fine with me and a bloke and she'd be even more fine with me and you, but I love Hermione, and I love you. Are you ok with me loving her too, that's the big question isn't it. I'm the one getting both chocolate and vanilla cake, the question is can I get to eat them both too."

"Blimey Ron, you making reference to eating me, isn't helping me keep my thoughts clean right now." Harry said with a slight growl, and Ron had to blush.

"I didn't mean it like that. I meant only that I'm not going to have issues when I really only have something to gain. It's up to you whether or not you'd be ok with me and Hermione."

"I dunno, I never thought I'd be in this kind of situation, where I have to share the man I love with a woman." Ron felt a slight trepidation at Harry's words but being referred to as the man Harry loved, caused a slight trill of butterflies in his stomach. "But Hermione isn't just a woman, she's also my best mate, practically a sister, and when I saw you kiss her just now and tell her you love her… it didn't bother me in the slightest. Are you sure she'd be ok with us?"

"Did you not hear what she said, of course she'd be fine with it, but this is far from normal Harry. The three of us in a relationship, it's a very progressive and misunderstood situation, and very far from what you wanted."

"I'm oddly ok with it all. The three of us have been friends for thirteen years, we love one another, love only grows over time, and it makes sense to me. Who gives a toss if no one else understands it, we all do, and we're really the only ones that matters. I would like to discuss this with Hermione in the morning though, make sure she's really on board, and… well I want to take things slow with us. I know we're talking about this being a forever kind of thing, and it's only reasonable since we've been in love with each other for years, but … I dunno."

"You still want me to court you." Ron said with a slight grin.

"Oh no, I'm the one who's doing the courting, you're the courted for sure." Harry said with a wicked grin at he hinted at who he pictured would we bottoming in their relationship.

"Tosser." Ron said with a large blush as he lightly punched his friends shoulder.

"Git." Harry replied before he caught Ron's hands and linked their fingers.

"Are you really sure?" Ron asked once more eyes down cast, insecurity getting the better of him.

"Yeah, I'm really sure, because you make me lizard-happy, and how could a guy give up on something like that." He said with a wide grin, very pleased at his ribbing comment that also happened to be true. Ron however had the pleasure of pressing his lips to Harry's, erasing that impish grin with his lips, and in the wake of its retreat, a dark and heated glare came into Harry's eyes that was soon matched by Ron's as their lips pressed together once more. This time the kiss was both passionate and tender, as flesh molded to flesh and tongue glide against tongue, each heaving a heavy and contented sigh in the other's arms.

It was an unusual situation, but dammit if it didn't feel completely and utterly perfect.

* * *

**A/N: Yet another Challenge I'm tempted to continue... should I?**


End file.
